Amid cold wave, Sunday Market witnesses brisk sale of woolens

Srinagar, Nov 12: Amid dip in temperature following rains, weekly flea market popularly known as Sunday Market witnessed rush of people buying woolen clothes at throw away prices.

The market is set along the road from posh Residency Road to Batamaloo old bus stand. The market is not part of the organised sector and has huge turnover and provides livelihood to more than 5,000 youth.

During winter, vendors sell winter clothes, while in summer, they sell summer clothes. With the onset of winter, warm clothes are in demand and people are thronging the Sunday Market.

Local youth, who turn entrepreneurs every Sunday, bring all kinds of clothes, bedding, curtains which they display on carts by the roadside. Some of these goods tend to be fresh while most, discarded for various reasons.

The shoppers were seen busy choosing and picking the favourite woolen clothes from the makeshift stalls. The vendors expressed happiness over the good business they did today.

The vendors said that with the cold wave intensifying with every passing day the sale of warm clothes has increased manifold. “As weather is getting cold, we thought of purchasing warm clothes for the family,” said Zameer Ahmad, adding that here in Sunday Market they get a variety of clothes and that too at low rates.

Not only the people from Srinagar city visited the Sunday Market for shopping, but those from some other parts of Kashmir were seen purchasing the items of their choice.

Abdul Karim from north Kashmir’s Bandipora district said that he along with other family members left for Srinagar early morning to shop for warm clothes. “We purchased warm clothes of our choice,” he said.

Another shopper, Jazid Ahmad, from Shopian district of south Kashmir said that now it did not seem Sunday Market is actually for people belonging to middle strata of income who cannot afford to purchase and wear costly branded clothes. “I found people from all walks of life purchasing warm clothes from the market,” he said.

Jazib said that they do shopping in the Sunday market during summers too. “Many of my friends are accompanying me today to buy warmer clothes,” he added.

One of the sellers said that the market has been here since 1970 and it was restarted in 1990. He said that it is only for one day in a week and it does not affect traffic.

Another seller said that on Sunday, the road from Lal Chowk to Batamaloo remains crowded because people can get things for a very low price. The sellers said that they sell things considering the needs of the people.